Oil sump drain valve



' 'July 11,1944. J.J.HEI\INESSY 2,353,467

OIL SUP JP DRAIN VALVE Filed Feb. 10, 1943 INVENTOR; JAMES J. HENNESSY ATTORNEY Patented July 11, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE OIL SUMP DRAIN VALVE James J. Hennessy, Montclair, N. J. Application February 10, 1943, Serial No. 475,347 (c1. 1s7 a4) 4 Claims.

The invention relates to the draining of water, oil or the like with dirt or other foreign matter from the sump of a reservoir orother liquid container and the invention has been developed with a view to its use particularly in connection with the oil sump of a railway axle box or a lubricant cellar used in connection therewith. Reference is made to applicants earlier Patent 2,105,649, issued January 18, 1938, and disclosing a device for the same general purpose.

The main objects of the invention are to facilitate a draining operation, to provide for easy maintenance of the drain in operative condition, to protect the operating parts against injury to which they would otherwise be subject due to the special field of use indicated above, and to minimize the expense of providing the reservoirs or the like with a satisfactory drain.

These and other detailed objects of the invention as will be referred to below are attained by the structur illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical section through the lower portion of an axle box lubricator provided with a drain valve embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

The bottom wall of the reservoir is indicated at l and a side wall at 2. The valve includes a body portion 3 having an upstanding boss 4 threaded to b screwed into a correspondingly threaded opening in the bottom wall of the reservoir. A vertically disposed drain passageway 5 extends through boss. 4 and the body of the valve. A horizontally disposed passageway 6 extends through the body intersecting drain passageway 5 and a plunger 1 is slidable in passageway 6. This plunger has a transverse aperture 8 adapted to be aligned with passageway 5 to drain water W, or other fluid, from the reservoir and to be disaligned with passageway 5, as shown, to close the valve. In the normal valve closing position illustrated in Figure 1, the right hand end of plunger I projects beyond the end of passageway 6 and the projecting end of the plunger is partially surrounded by a shield 9 on the valve body, the shield being open at the bottom and at the end to facilitate access to the end of the plunger so that it may be moved manually to drain opening position.

The plunger is held normally in the drain closing position illustrated by a coil spring H) which is housed in a recess formed in the plunger and seats at one end against the inner end of the recess and at its opposite end against a pin ll extending through the plunger and seated in the valve body. The portions of the plunger forming the sides of the spring receiving recess are slotted as indicated at l2 to permit the relative movementof the plunger and pin l I.

To facilitate the assembly and to'enable the plungers to' be produced and handled readily independently of the remainder" of the valve structure, the outer end of the springreceiving recess in the plunger is provided with a pin 13 which will form a seat for the outer end of the spring if the pin II is removed and the plunger withdrawn from the valve body.

When the parts are assembled and pin H is inserted between pin I3 and the outer end of spring It], the movement of the plunger to the right is positively checked by the engagement of pins II and I3 and the movement of the plunger to the left-is yieldingly resisted by the action of spring H1.

At all times the spring is housed within the plunger and is not exposed to injury from external objects which might be encountered in rough handling of the valve or the plunger as separate units or by the application of tools to the device for the purpose of opening the valve. Preferably the device is further protected against injury from flying rocks from the road bed or other external objects by angle clips l4 secured to the box at either side of the valve by welds, as indicated at L.

The device is simple and inexpensive to make,

is rugged in construction, easy to manipulate and free of any parts which can be made inoperative by the dirt and abuse ordinarily encountered in servce.

At the end of a trip or at any time when it is desired to inspect or drain the contents of the box, the operator needs only to press plunger 1 to the left and as soon as sulplus water or dirty oil is discharged the pressure is released and the plug returns to drain closing position. If no water, oil or other matter is discharged from the box, the operator can readily insert a nail through the device to clear the same without affecting the sealing action of the parts when released.

The plug may be made rectangular in cross section and arranged to be operated by pulling, instead of pushing, from its normal position and other arrangements of the spring and guard elements may be made, or even omitted, and the exclus ive use of these and other modifications of the structure coming within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. In a sump drain valve of the class described, a one-piece body having a drain passageway extending therethrough in one direction and having a plunger passageway intersecting the drain passageway, a one-piece elongated plunger slidable in the plunger passageway and having one end normally projecting from one end of the plunger passageway, the body including a shield partially surrounding the projecting portion of the plunger and opening outwardly from the end of the plunger and at one side thereof, there being a recess in the plunger extending inwardly from its other end, a spring housed in said recess with one end seated against the inner end thereof, a

seat on the body for the other end of the spring,

the plunger having a transverse aperture between its projecting end and the springhousing recess, the plunger being movable from its normal position against the thrust of said spring by a finger or atool pressed against said projecting end and moving along the open side of the shield to align the aperture and the drain passageway, and a stop limiting the spring thrust movement of the plunger; 1

2. In a sump drain, a valve body having a horizontally disposed passageway open from end to end, an upright boss threaded 'exteriorly for in sertion into a threaded opening in a sump wall, there being a vertically disposed drain passageway through said body and boss and intersecting said horizontally disposed passageway, a plunger slidable in said horizontally disposed passageway and normally coextensive therewith and having a transverse aperture adapted to be aligned and disaligned with said drain passageway to open and close the valve, there being an elongated recess in the plunger at one side of said aperture, a spring housed in said recess and seated against the inner end of the same, the plunger having a spring seat at the outer end of said recess to prevent withdrawal of the spring from the recess, and an element on the body engaging the spring so that the latter thrusts the plunger to drain closing position.

3. A plunger unit for a valve of the class described comprising a cylindrical plug having a transverse aperture near one end and having an axial recess extending inwardly from its other end, a spring in said recess and seated against the inner end thereof, and a pin in the plunger extending transversely of the recess near the outer end of the latter and retaining the spring in the recess, the sides of the unit being slotted inwardly from said end to slidably receive a positioning element of the valve to which the plunger is applied.

4. In a sump drain valve of the class described, a body having a drain passageway extending therethrough in one direction, a plunger passageway intersecting said drain passageway, a pin extending transversely of said plunger passage- Way, and seated in the valve body, an elongated plunger slidable in the plunger passageway and provided with a transverse aperture, adapted to be aligned with said drain passageway, and provided with an axial recess at one side of said aperture and open at one end of the plunger, the plunger having slots extending inwardly from said end alongside of said recess to receive said pin, a spring compressed between the innerend of the recess and said pin and thrusting the plunger in one direction to disalign said drain passageway and said aperture, a pin extending through said plunger at the other side of and transversely of said first-mentioned pin and seated in the sides of the plunger and limiting the spring-thrust movement of the plunger.

' JAs. J. HENNESSY. 

